Willard Boyle

Willard Boyle
CC
Boyle in 2009
Born
Willard Sterling Boyle

(1924-08-19)August 19, 1924
Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada
DiedMay 7, 2011(2011-05-07) (aged 86)
Wallace, Nova Scotia, Canada
Citizenship
  • Canada
  • United States
EducationMcGill University (BSc, MSc, PhD)
Known for
Spouse
Betty Joyce
​
(m. 1946)​
Children4
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
Workplaces
ThesisThe construction of a Dempster type mass spectrometer: its use in the measurement of the diffusion rates of certain alkali metals in tungsten (1950)
H. Watson

Willard Sterling Boyle (August 19, 1924 – May 7, 2011) was a Canadian applied physicist who shared one half of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics with George E. Smith for their invention of the charge-coupled device.

Early life and education

Willard Sterling Boyle was born on August 19, 1924, in Amherst, Nova Scotia, and lived in the nearby village of Wallace until the age of three, when he moved with his parents to northern Quebec, where his father worked as a doctor in the logging community. He was homeschooled by his mother, as the nearest school was 30 miles away. At age fourteen, he began his formal education at Lower Canada College in Montreal.

Boyle attended McGill University, but his education was interrupted in 1943, when he joined the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II, training to land Spitfires on aircraft carriers. After the war ended, Boyle resumed his studies at McGill, where he received a Bachelor of Science in 1947 and a Master of Science the following year. In 1950, he received a Doctor of Philosophy in Physics for a thesis on mass spectrometry.

Career

After receiving his doctorate, Boyle spent one year at Canada's Radiation Laboratory and two years teaching physics at the Royal Military College of Canada.

In 1953, Boyle joined Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he invented the first continuously operating ruby laser with Don Nelson in 1962. He was made Director of Space Science and Exploratory Studies at Bellcomm (a subsidiary of Bell Labs) in 1962, providing support for the Apollo program and helping to select lunar landing sites. He returned to Bell Labs in 1964, working on the development of integrated circuits. Boyle was Executive Director of Research in the Communications Sciences Division from 1975 until his retirement in 1979.

Charge-coupled device

In 1969, Boyle and George E. Smith invented the charge-coupled device (CCD), for which they were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2009. The CCD allowed NASA to send clear pictures to Earth back from space. It is also the technology that powers many digital cameras today. Smith said of their invention: "After making the first couple of imaging devices, we knew for certain that chemistry photography was dead." Eugene Gordon and Mike Tompsett, two now-retired colleagues from Bell Labs, claim that its application to photography was not invented by Boyle.

Personal life and death

In 1946, Boyle married Betty Joyce, with whom he had two sons and two daughters.

During retirement, Boyle lived in Wallace, Nova Scotia, and in Lac Tremblant, Quebec. One of his hobbies was sailing his 33-foot boat.

Boyle had suffered from kidney disease, and died at a hospital in Wallace on May 7, 2011, at the age of 86.

Recognition

Awards

Year Organization Award Citation Ref.
1973 Franklin Institute Stuart Ballantine Medal "[For the] invention of charge-coupled device structure for imagesensing, serial memory and signal processing."
1974 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award "For the invention of the charge-coupled device and leadership in the field of MOS device physics."
1999 NEC C&C Foundation C&C Prize "For the Invention of the Charge-Coupled Device (CCD)."
2001
Edwin H. Land Medal "For the invention and development of the charge-coupled device, a contribution that has had extraordinary impact on image creation and utilization."
2006 National Academy of Engineering Charles Stark Draper Prize "For the invention of the Charge-Coupled Device (CCD), a light-sensitive component at the heart of digital cameras and other widely used imaging technologies."
2009 Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Nobel Prize in Physics "For the invention of an imaging semiconductor circuit - the CCD sensor."

Memberships

Year Organization Type Ref.
1974 National Academy of Engineering Member

Honours

Year Country Honour Ref.
2010 Canada Companion of the Order of Canada

References

  1. ↑ "Nobel Prize in Physics 2009 - Press release". NobelPrize.org. October 6, 2009. Archived from the original on May 30, 2013. Retrieved October 8, 2009.
  2. 1 2 Boyle, Willard Sterling (1950). The construction of a Dempster type mass spectrometer: its use in the measurement of the diffusion rates of certain alkali metals in tungsten (PhD thesis). McGill University Libraries. OCLC 890947763. ProQuest 301841894.
  3. ↑ Chang, Kenneth (October 7, 2009). "Nobel Awarded for Harnessing Light". The New York Times. Retrieved October 9, 2009.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  4. ↑ "Canadian scientist shares Nobel physics prize". CBC News. October 6, 2009. Archived from the original on July 24, 2012. Retrieved September 22, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Maugh II, Thomas H. (May 19, 2011). "Nobelist was a father of the digital camera". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 7, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2012.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Willard S. Boyle – Biographical". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved November 1, 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 "McGill congratulates its second Nobel-winning alumnus of 2009". Alumni News. McGill University. October 6, 2009. Archived from the original on January 31, 2012. Retrieved October 15, 2009.
  8. ↑ "Boyle, Willard S., 1924-2011". American Institute of Physics. Archived from the original on December 12, 2024. Retrieved November 1, 2026.
  9. ↑ Cassingham, Randy (May 15, 2011). "Willard Boyle". This is True. Ridgway, Colorado. Archived from the original on May 10, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2012.
  10. ↑ Nobel Controversy: Former Bell Labs Employee Says He Invented the CCD Imager IEEE
  11. ↑ "Willard S. Boyle". Franklin Institute. Archived from the original on October 7, 2025. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  12. ↑ "IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award Recipients" (PDF). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2016. Retrieved February 27, 2011.
  13. ↑ "Successive Recipients of C&C Prize". NEC C&C Foundation. Archived from the original on September 28, 2025. Retrieved December 15, 2025.
  14. ↑ "Edwin H. Land Medal". Optica. Archived from the original on November 18, 2025. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  15. ↑ "2006 Recipient: Dr. Willard S. Boyle". National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved November 1, 2026.
  16. ↑ "Nobel Prize in Physics 2009". NobelPrize.org. Archived from the original on October 8, 2009. Retrieved October 6, 2009.
  17. ↑ "Dr. Willard S. Boyle". National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved February 9, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ↑ "Governor General announces 74 new appointments to the Order of Canada". Governor General of Canada. June 30, 2010. Archived from the original on June 12, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2012.